The use of perfusion-free ADC measurements significantly improves diagnostic accuracy of DW-MRI in differentiating benign conditions from malignancies of the anterior mediastinum. J. Magn. Reson. Imaging 2016;44:758-769.

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RFA for thoracic malignancies is accurate for lesions up to 30 mm, especially if metastatic; survival is more closely related to staging factors than to the local effectiveness of RFA.

The role of computed tomography (CT) in the diagnosis of the solitary pulmonary nodule (SPN) is constantly expanding. CT helps to detect a growing number of increasingly small lesions, but, as with chest radiography, the primary goal in the evaluation of small pulmonary nodules is to exclude malignancy. Despite the availability of numerous, variously invasive, diagnostic tests, diagnostic accuracy tends to decline as the size of the nodule decreases. The role of the radiologist is therefore to help the clinician determine the most appropriate management strategy by using all available modalities [CT, magnetic resonance (MR) imaging, positron emission tomography (PET)] and evaluating the patient's clinical history and the imaging features leading to a diagnosis of benignity or malignancy. Imaging features include nodule size, margins, calcifications and fatty component, internal features (cavitations, pseudocavitations, air bronchogram, halo sign), as well as advanced techniques for characterisation (growth rate, contrast enhancement) and management (computer-aided diagnosis, Bayesian analysis, neural networks). The aim of this paper is to summarise the approach to pulmonary nodules from the point of view of the radiologist, oncologist and thoracic surgeon.

Percutaneous 14-gauge Spirotome TTNB of selected lesions is feasible and accurate. It provides adequate samples for diagnosis, comparable to 18-gauge Tru-Cut needle, with a higher amount of tumor tissue (weight, TC, DNA concentration) even in shorter samples.